whole wheat pumpkin pancakes

I’m reading a really fantastic book right now called Sabbath in the Suburbs.  I’m sure I’ll tell you more about it later, but for now suffice it to say that it is changing the way I am thinking about weekends.  Our weekends have felt kind of stressful in the past couple of months, which doesn’t make a lot of sense because football has been on and on Saturdays that is generally our focus.  But we’ve had weekends out of town, to-do lists that are longer than I would like, and instead of focusing on family time I feel like I have spent a lot of time waiting until I can move on to the next thing I need to do.  It’s been stressful and I don’t want to always approach my weekends like that.  It more often than not does not leave me feeling refreshed and ready to go on Monday mornings.

So I’m at least dipping my toes into changing the way I do Saturday.  (More later probably.)

One thing we have done a lot recently though, it to make pancakes or waffles for breakfast on Saturday morning.  But not at a hurried pace…just leisurely while we watch College Gameday.  And this is one of our new favorite recipes.

I first made them because I had made a batch of pumpkin muffins and didn’t want my leftover puree to go to waste.  I thought they might be a good things to add to Evelyn’s breakfast repertoire (I pulled the recipe out of a baby cookbook I had).  But of course, Gerrit and I loved them, too, and they’ve been making regular appearances on our Saturday morning table.  (Just as long as we don’t make it stressful.)

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes (per batch)

Makes about 10 pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg, room temperature
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin puree, egg, and oil.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring together just until combined. Then let the batter sit for about 5 minutes.
4. Preheat an electric griddle to 350 degrees F. (Or, heat a non-stick skillet on the stove over medium heat.) Spray the griddle with non-stick cooking spray, or wipe it down with some butter.
5. Pour the pancake batter onto the griddle using a 1/4 cup measuring cup. 6. Cook until bubbles are appearing at the top, and the sides of the pancake are beginning to look cooked, about 3-4 minutes. Flip the pancakes carefully (these are pretty delicate…and if they are being too impossible to flip, it probably means they need a bit more time), and cook on the other side for another 3-4 minutes, until golden brown.
7. Remove and serve warm, with your choice of butter/syrup/jam.

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